Unsustainable and short-lived goods

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This is the complement of the BifL (buy it for life) communites. Here we call out products (tech and non-tech) that:

are designed to fail early
feature anti-repair tactics (booby traps, self-destruction mechanisms, circuit boards submerged in silicon or plastic, denied documentation access)
are designed to make you needlessly dependant on an unsustainable proprietary service (typically in the cloud), which risks:
① remote kill switches where a supplier pulls the plug on singled-out individuals (e.g. Amazon sabotaging service to your thermostat, doorbell, vaccuum, etc whenever you have a billing dispute),
② the company disappearing, or ③ the company deciding to decommission a server and boot everyone who depends on it.

Related communities:

!buyitforlife@slrpnk.net - Buy stuff that lasts a long time, if you must buy something
!buyitforlife@discuss.tchncs.de - Buy stuff that lasts a long time, if you must buy something
!fixing@slrpnk.net - fix it, don’t replace it
!fixit@disflux.org
!righttorepair@midwest.social - exercise your right to fix stuff
!right2repair@discuss.tchncs.de - exercise your right to fix stuff
!sustainabletech@lemmy.sdf.org - sustainable technology
!permacomputing@lemmy.sdf.org - To discuss computing that’s not resource intensive
!permacomputing@slrpnk.net - To discuss computing that’s not resource intensive
!zerowaste@slrpnk.net - To discuss waste avoidance
!anticonsumption@sopuli.xyz
!asshole_crappy_design@slrpnk.net
!crappydesign@discuss.tchncs.de
!forced_obsolescence@slrpnk.net

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USB-C Swivel Cord - Fragile and breaks easily (m.media-amazon.com)

submitted 1 month ago by shifty@leminal.space to c/unsustainable_products@slrpnk.net

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This is a newer product on the market, its a great idea, where the USB-C plug can swivel. I assume their goal was to make it easier to charge your device while also using it, and to make the cable last longer. The swivel part is great when it works but it's super fragile and broke for me in two weeks.

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[–] StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Where was the failure point?

[–] shifty@leminal.space 5 points 1 month ago

There's two moving parts here.

The 360 degree swivel part was fine.

The left-to-right 180 degree swivel part failed. Which is the most important part cause the USB-C port is on the bottom of my phone and I like to charge it when I'm holding it.

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